Hydrocarbons are produced from a wellbore that passes through one or more hydrocarbon producing formations. Packers are often used to isolate multiple hydrocarbon producing formations from one another. The performance of the packers can affect the production of hydrocarbons from the multiple hydrocarbon producing formations. Accordingly, monitoring the performance of the packers and the adjacent formations are desirable. During the production of hydrocarbons from the wellbore and/or the placement of one or more completion strings into the wellbore, one or more properties of the wellbore may need to be measured.
The properties of the wellbore are often measured with one or more sensors adjacent or integrated with the completion string. These sensors can be sensitive and susceptible to damage when exposed to wellbore fluid, debris, contact with a wall of the wellbore, or contact with a downhole object. In addition, the function of the sensors can diminish over time when the sensors are exposed to wellbore fluids continuously.
A need, therefore, exists for apparatus and methods for measuring wellbore properties and/or monitoring the performance of one or more packers while simultaneously preventing damage to the one or more sensors measuring the wellbore properties and/or monitoring the performance of one or more packers.